ESWATINI: Marula Festival In Eswatini

The cheerful, friendly Swazi people have preserved their rich culture and traditions as a vital element in their day-to-day lives and colorful ceremonies are held every year to celebrate the Swazi traditions.

The Swazi people are united by culture and values and the Marula Festival, locally known as Emaganwini, is one of them. Such events have kept this one tribe nation united and inseparable, making it the unique destination that it is.

The Swazis are united in song and dance during this festival, particularly the women who are the brewers of the marula beer.

It’s all about dancing and celebrating the provision of the fruit that is not only used for the beer but also for different purposes such as skin care products.

The Marula Festival in Eswatini

The Marula season begins each year in mid February and continues until May, bringing with it a celebration of the harvest of the marula fruit.

Once the green fruits fall to the ground, women and children gather and store them until they ripen to a creamy yellow colour.

The fruits are then placed into water, sugar is added and it is fermented, and distilled into a beer. This potent alcoholic mixture is called buganu, or marula beer.

The Kingdom of Eswatini celebrates the start of the Marula season with the annual Marula festival.

The festival is increasing in popularity, and swiftly becoming one of the country’s most exciting traditional ceremonies. Each year King Mswati III and Her Majesty the Indlovukazi, the Queen Mother, make their way to various regions of the Kingdom to celebrate the beginning of the Marula Season.

The largest of these festivals is held at the royal residence at Ebuhleni where the royal family join the nation in song and dance. Although the Marula Fruit is found widely throughout Africa, it is most popular in Eswatini.

Seen by the Swazi nation as much more than a food source, the Marula is rather regarded as a magical healing ingredient, with huge fertility properties.

The King and Queen mother are presented with Marula gifts and some Marula beer from each household.

Only after the royal family has had some of the beer, is the rest of the nation permitted to join in and drink as well.

Because of its many uses, the marula fruit is no longer just used to brew beer in Eswatini. It has been further developed into beauty products as part of Her Majesty, The Indlovukazi’s job creation and poverty alleviation initiatives for rural women in Eswatini.

Several families in Eswatini have benefited from this initiative.

The marula products are produced under a company called Swazi Secrets. A well fitting name for the secret of the marula fruit.

The fruit has been developed into many different beauty products. These products also come in hotel packages and gift packages.

Marula Quick Facts

- Marula fruit contains four times more valuable vitamin C than oranges.

- Marula edible seed oil is rich in nutritious proteins and minerals and contains active anti-oxidants.

- Marula essential oils an effective skin conditioner. Its cosmetic and anti-oxidant properties soften, soothe and re-hydrate the skin while fighting free radicals.

- Marula legends abound – from its use as a food source, magical qualities as a healing ingredient, to its virility and fertility properties, as well as the many uses of its bark, leaves, fruit, nut and kernels.

Marula Festival Schedule

- On the first day, the Queen Mother arrives at Buhleni Royal Residence, and the women of the area present bucket-loads of marula fruit harvested over the last week. All the women are dressed in traditional clothing and respect is shown, praise and thanks are given

- On the second day, the main day, the King usually joins the Queen Mother and the Marula Brew – Umganu – is presented to their majesties, who partake of the brew and declare the season open. This is celebrated by song and dance, specific to the occasion.

- Following this, marula brew, buganu, is officially blessed and may be consumed across the country.

- A second event of similar rituals is held at His Majesty’s Hlane Royal Residence.


Tourism Observer

SWAZILAND: Umhlanga, The Reed Dance

This is Swaziland’s best known cultural event, and has a more open feel than the Incwala.

In this eight-day ceremony, young girls cut reeds, present them to the Queen Mother (Indlovukazi) – ostensibly to repair the windbreak around her royal residence – and then dance in celebration.

Up to 40,000 girls take part, dressed up in brightly coloured attired - making it one of the biggest and most spectacular cultural events in Africa.

The proper festivities kick off on day six, when dancing gets under way in the afternoon. Each group drops their reeds outside the Queen Mother’s quarters then moves to the main arena, where they dance and sing their songs.

The dancing continues on day seven, when the king is present. Each regiment dances before him in turn.

Little can prepare you for the sheer scale of the pageantry, with column upon column of girls advancing like vast ululating centipedes across the parade grounds of Ludzidzini, each dissolving in turn into the pulsating mass of bodies around the royal kraal.

Up close, it’s an almost overwhelming immersion in noise and colour, as the girls stamp, sing and sway in step, anklets rattling, naked flesh and dazzling costume blurring into a living, chanting kaleidoscope.

The warrior escorts, adorned with cow tails and clutching knob-stick and shield, are sternly intent on their duties and seem contemptuous of tourists, but the girls are all smiles.

It’s Swaziland’s biggest holiday and, after days of tramping the hillsides, cutting reeds and camping out, they’re determined to party.

Today the Umhlanga is as well attended as ever. Indeed cultural historians marvel at how its ever-increasing popularity in Swaziland defies the apparent decline of traditional culture elsewhere.

It offers the visitor a unique experience. There are no special visitor arrangements – except for a special grandstand to accommodate visiting dignitaries – but simply turn up at Ludzidizini and follow the crowds.

Police will direct you where to go, and where to park. Officially, permits are required for photography.

The event takes place around the last week of August / first week of September. The dates for the event are released relatively close to the time as they derive from ancestral astrology.

Though we are waiting for confirmation, we expect the Reed Dance to start on 29th August, with the main day (Day 7) being Monday 4th September. We will confirm this news on our site when the dates have been officially announced.

A number of Swaziland accommodation and travel providers have special offers on at the time of the Reed Dance. See below:

Pigg's Peak Hotel & Casino: Special room rate.

Sibane Hotel: Special room rate and lunch offer.

Myxo's Woza Nawe Cultural Tours: Reed Dance Tour.

Peace Guest Centre Guest House: Special room rates.

All Out Africa: Lobamba Village Walking Tour package.

Tourists visiting the annual Reed Dance are not permitted to take photographs. If you are taking photographs for media organisation then please make contacts.

For the latest news on this year's event, including details of a number of initiatives to assist visitors to the event, please see our latest news items.

You can read a fantastic blog entry all about Swaziland's Reed Dance.

The full schedule is as follows:

Day One

The girls gather at the Queen Mother’s royal village. Today this is at Ludzidzini, in Sobhuza’s time it was at Lobamba. They come in groups from the 200 or so chiefdoms and are registered for security. Men, usually four, supervise them, appointed chiefs. They sleep in the huts of relatives in the village or in classrooms of nearby schools. This is a very exciting time for the maidens.

Day Two

The girls are separated into two groups, the older (about 14 to 22 years) and the younger (about 8 to 13 years). In the afternoon, they march to the reed-beds with their supervisors. The older girls often march about 30 kilometers, while the younger girls march about ten kilometers. If the older girls are sent further, government will provide trucks for their transport.

Day Three

The girls cut their reeds, usually about ten to twenty, using long knives. Each girl ties her reeds into a bundle. Nowadays they use strips of plastic for the tying, but those mindful of tradition will still cut grass and plaint it into rope.

Day Four

In the afternoon, the girls set off to return to the Queen Mother’s village, carrying their bundles of reeds. Again they return at night. This is done “to show they traveled a long way.”

Day Five

A day of rest where the girls make final preparations to their hair and dancing costumes. After all that walking, who doesn’t deserve a little pampering?

Day Six

First day of dancing, from about three to five in the afternoon. The girls drop their reeds outside the Queen Mother’s quarters. They move to the arena and dance, keeping their groups and each group singing different songs at the same time.

Day Seven

Second and last day of dancing. His Majesty the King will be present.

Day Eight

King commands that a number of cattle (perhaps 20 -25) be slaughtered for the girls. They receive pieces of meat and go home.


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